1877-1915, 1940-1952
169 cu.ft., index
Includes stenographic transcriptions of complete testimony of selected cases heard before the Court of Quarter Sessions. Transcript includes name of defendant, term and number of case, name of district attorney and defense attorney, and names of persons giving evidence for the Commonwealth and the defense and of court stenographer.
Cases, 1877-1915, involve murder, abortion, milk tampering, election fraud, conspiracy, embezzlement, disbarrment of lawyers, lunacy hearings, and public works fraud, among others. Notable cases for these years include the murder case of Herman George Mudgett (H.H. Holmes) in 1895, disbarrment proceedings of William A. Shoemaker (1895) and Joseph R. Serfass (1906), contested elections of John Dougherty (1896), William G. Huey (1898), and Thomas McCullough (1898), election fraud trials in 1901 and 1902, and the conspiracy trial against Henry Clay, Carl Zelinziger, John R. Wiggins and William H. Walls accused of defrauding the City of Philadelphia in public works contracts in 1912.

One volume consists of cases heard in Juvenile Court in September 1911. A separate index is found within this volume.

Index arranged by court docket term and number, if known.

Notes of Testimony, 1940-1952 are a sample which includes all cases of homicide, manslaughter and cases deemed to be spectacular or notorious and a sample of other cases selected by a rigorous sampling method (sampling methodology is available to researchers upon request). Although files are largely confined to the stenographic transcript of the trial, occasionally other items are filed with the transcript including evidence, bills of indictment, and copies of petition under Post Conviction Hearing Act which include the name of the defendant, indictments and offenses for which defendant had not completed sentence, list of crimes with he was charged, prison in which confined, date of sentence, reason for requesting relief under Act, supporting exhibits; statement whether defendant has proceedings in court of Commonwealth, a habeas corpus proceeding in a Federal court, or other proceedings; name of lawyer of defense attorney, a statement whether defendant is able to employ attorney, defendant's affidavit, and the court order. Index , 1940-1952, is in the form of a data base.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1867-1920
3 volumes, index
Entries chiefly concerned with acquisitions of lands for park purposes; include Commissioners' reports of negotiations, court decrees confirming such agreements, petitions for juries in cases in which negotiations not possible, juries' reports, description of properties, damages awarded by Court, exceptions filed; also included are notices of Court's appointments of Park Commissioners. After 1920, these matters were entered in the Road Docket.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1906-1944
3 cu.ft., no index
Petitions list date, petitioner, parties, judge, ruling, and often detail facts in case; filed with them are often a transcript of testimony taken at hearing.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1924-1925
3 volumes, no index
Entries list date, judge, description of liquor seized and name of owner (and, occasionally, automobile in which found), date and court term and filing number of petition for forfeiture and condemnation of liquor and automobile, note of whether petition granted or vacated.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1911-1912
1 cu.ft., no index
Papers for each commitment include court order making commitment which lists date and party committed, place and terms of commitment, party on whose motion commitment made; also, various petitions supporting motion for commitment and, occasionally, notes of testimony given before commissioners appointed to recommend disposition.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1685-1919
57 cu.ft., index
Papers in regards to opening of streets, roads, bridges, parks, filed by location, normally include original petition for opening, court's appointment of viewers, their report, exceptions to it filed, orders confirming road and awarding damages, scaled and detailed maps of roads. Also included is one file relating to damages awarded owing to the destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, home of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, on 17 May 1838, including eye-witness testimony.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1836-1944
21 volumes, index
Entries of uneven date vary in form but list essentially date, location of road or bridge, legal steps taken in regard to its opening; these entries form basis of more comprehensive and unified entries in road docket series; matters in earliest volumes also include setting of wharf lines, incorporation of boroughs, appointments of some county officers, approval of county area survey plans, apprentice cases, mob damage petitions.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1939
1 cu.ft., no index
Bound copies of all Jury's presentments, containing also District Attorney's petition for the investigation, Mayor's memoranda concerning it, Judge's instructions to Jury at impaneling and his subsequent instructions and public statements; Jury charged with investigating District Attorney's office and vice, crime, and law enforcement.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1937-1939
6 volumes, index
Digests of statements by all witnesses; entries arranged alphabetically by witnesses names, under each of which is listed all persons and places to which reference made.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1937-1939
1 volume, no index
Entries grouped alphabetically. list of witnesses heard by Jury; each name is assigned a number and followed by the volume and page in notes of testimony , in which his statement is recorded and its date.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1937-1938
1 cu.ft., no index
Stenographers' financial records including bank statements and cancelled checks for Grand Jury expenditures, bank books, receipts for purchases, check stubs and statements of allocation of funds in Grand Jury accounts, exhibits and petitions in mandamus proceedings against City of Philadelphia for payment of stenographers, a transcript of the District Attorney's petition to the Court of Quarter Sessions for a grand jury to investigate charges of vice and crime dated September 15, 1937 and a transcript of the City Solicitor's statement of September 16, 1937 in reply to this petition, a copy of the recommendation of January 26, 1937 of the Mayor's Crime Commission and a copy of a letter addressed to a Commission member; a copy of a confidential memo of Nathan D. Antenson, Special Counsel, detailing the system of coordinating the Grand Jury investigation in areas pertaining to filing system, digesting testimony and subsequent indexing and filing, building cases, and presentment, trial and final report; lists of witnesses appearing before the Grand Jury which include the name of the person conducting the examination and time of examination, transcripts of Grand Jury presentments and of the judge's charges and instructions to the Grand Jury, and transcripts of related and unrelated hearings.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1950-1951
10 cu.ft., no index
Complete transcripts of testimony taken by Jury charged with investigating Bureaus of Water and Building Inspection, and City issuance of licenses and permits generally. Also, there is included three cubic feet of court stenographers' tapes.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1944-1954, 1971
1 cu.ft., no index
No presentment for every month, but years 1946-1950 almost complete; scattered presentments only for years earlier and later. each presentment a summary of Jury's actions and findings listing (often) a summary of the number of bills of indictment examined and the numbers returned true and ignored; also, reports of Jury visits to City and State prisons, hospitals, welfare institutions. The volume for 1971 is called the Report of the August 1971 Grand Jury and is submitted to the Judges of the Common Pleas Court Criminal Section.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1965
1 volume, no index
Commission appointed by Court March, 1963 to prepare plan of realignment of all City wards based on equitable population distribution; includes a brief history of Commission's proceedings, descriptions of boundaries and approximate populations of proposed new wards; copy of Court's final order of August 2, 1965 approving plan effective December 1, 1965; map of new ward arrangement.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1936
24 cu.ft., no index
Contains names of plaintiff and defendant, petitions and orders for affidavits for attachment, petitions to change dollar amount or beneficiary, confessions of judgment, subpeonas, warrants and bench warrants, and accounting sheets. Cases are filed by court term and case number.
These records may be used only with permission from the City Archivist.Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

1874-1907
1 cu.ft., no index
Each bill includes date of the court session, name of person or persons indicted, date of crime, charge (often including a very detailed narrative of incident leading to indictment), signature of district attorney, names and addresses of witnesses, signature of Grand Jury foreman, deposition of the bill, amount of bail, name of judge granting bail, name and address of bail bondsman. All of the bills are marked "fugitive" and were nolle prossed in 1952.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

December 1838 - October 1915; January 1940 - December 1952
277 cu.ft., no index
Each bill lists Court, term and number, date, defendant, charge (Occasionally in the form of a detailed narrative), plea, names of jury foreman and attorney general who signed the bill of indictment, notation whether bill true or false, names of witnesses, amount of bail, verdict and sentence. Bills for 1940-1952 are a sample (sampling methodology is available to researchers upon request) and include the following additional information: address of defendant, name of victim, addresses of witnesses and of those posting bail, and numbers of related indictment. Often filed with these later Bills are a number of other documents which variously include: petition to be relieved of fines and costs which lists a schedule of defendant's property, if any; affidavit of destitute condition, judge's orders for appearance in Court or transfer to institution; report of commission to inquire into defendant's sanity, which includes date of report, names of persons making statements before the commission, basis of board's decision judge's approval of report, and order for commitment; certificate of attorney that attorney was appointed by the Court to represent the defendant and a statement of their compensation for services, jury selection lists with names of those interviewed and those selected for jury and indication of challenges by district attorney and defendant's attorney, arrest warrant, statement of attorney's appearance or withdrawal from case; affidavit of service of notice of appeal which includes name of person making service, names of persons on whom service made , and Court, term and number of case; writ of certiorari directed to the Quarter Sessions Court from an appellate court requesting to review the case, statement of questions to be argued on appeal; copy of appeal to appellate court listing term, case number, name of appellant, date filed, charge, summary of steps of case from docket of Quarter Sessions Court, and exhibits; opinion of the appellate court, and remittitur sending judgment of appellate court and record back to the Court of Quarter Sessions.
Location: City Archives, 3101 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104